Podcast 41: A Midsummer Night's Dream DVD Reviews
This week's podcast continues our month-long discussion of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with reviews of five productions available on DVD: the 1935 Max Reinhardt Warner Brothers version, the 1968 Peter Hall Royal Shakespeare Company version, the 1994 Adrian Noble production (also from the RSC), and the 1999 Michael Hoffman film with Kevin Kline. We make a pretty big announcement about our first interactive Project event: video office hours. And we finish off with our usual recap of this week's blog entries.
Errata:
14:20 -- Text should be "late 80s" instead of "late 70s"
22:58 -- Text should be "debrief about it on next week's" instead of "debrief on next week's"
Link:
Our first video web conference (Office Hours): www.billwalthall.com/BSPconf
Passcode to be announced later this week...
Podcast Credits
This podcast was recorded using a Blue Snowball microphone onto a Dell XPS 400 computer, using Adobe Soundbooth recording and editing software.
The bumper music (Loop 90) and the segue music (Morning Show Segue) are courtesy of Royalty Free Music.com , which offers a comprehensive music library of production music for your various royalty free music needs including full albums, tracks and free music clips, loops, and beats available for download.
Sound clips from:
Download | Duration: 00:24:36
Errata:
14:20 -- Text should be "late 80s" instead of "late 70s"
22:58 -- Text should be "debrief about it on next week's" instead of "debrief on next week's"
Link:
Our first video web conference (Office Hours): www.billwalthall.com/BSPconf
Passcode to be announced later this week...
Podcast Credits
This podcast was recorded using a Blue Snowball microphone onto a Dell XPS 400 computer, using Adobe Soundbooth recording and editing software.
The bumper music (Loop 90) and the segue music (Morning Show Segue) are courtesy of Royalty Free Music.com , which offers a comprehensive music library of production music for your various royalty free music needs including full albums, tracks and free music clips, loops, and beats available for download.
Sound clips from:
- "Wedding March from a Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61" by Saint Germain Symphony Orchestra, Norman Vermuren, Felix Mendelssohn; From the Album "Wedding Songs : The Best Of (Processional Songs and Wedding Music for a Perfect Wedding)"; released by Ultimate Classical Music (2010)
- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery; directed by Jay Roach; written by Mike Myers; released by New Line Pictures (1997)
Of the four DVD's you reviewed my favorite by far is the Adrian Noble version with the RSC.
The Peter Hall version with the mostly nude Judi Dench suffers from a poor transfer, and much of the camera work doesn't work. I think the problem comes from adopting a stage production for film. I would have preferred to see a carefully filmed version of the stage production (like Adrian Noble's), instead of a movie adaption. However, Judi Dench and Ian Holm are both excellent.
The Kevin Kline version suffers from poor or non-existent verse reading. The playing is far too naturalistic. For me, this usually sucks most of the life out of Shakespeare. I think that turning verse into prose robs the play of its beauty and makes it less intelligible. Even where the dialog is prose (Bottom speaks mostly prose), the part needs to be read with real energy. I know Kevin Kline can do it, so I can only conclude that the reading got tuned down to make it more "accessible."
What do I like about Noble's version? The verse reading glows, especially Oberon/Theseus and Titania/Hippolyta. Desmond Barrit creates the best Bottom by far of the four, and I like Barry Lynch's Puck the most too.
On the down side is the framing device of the boy (an older Osheen Jones plays Lucius in Julie Taymor's Titus). I believe I read that the stage production lacks it: It should have been left out of filmed version too. Adrian Noble heavily, if skillfully, edited the play. I didn't realize how much dialog had been cut until I tried to read along with actors. It doesn't feel chopped up, but I bet close to half of the play got cut. I wonder how much of the play was in the original stage production. I would have preferred less boy, more Shakespeare.
Finally, you must have got a defective disk. Mine is a completely high quality DVD.
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I may have to find a better copy and view it again. My less than enthusiastic response (though I do wish I had seen it on stage, where I think it would have absolutely SOARED) might also have been a result of "review fatigue" ... it was the last one I watched... and I watched all four within a span of maybe 5 days...
Yeah, you make some good points... maybe I should re-watch.
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